Aperiomics Brings Pathogen Testing to Integrative Healthcare Field

Ashburn, VA – May 2, 2017 — Aperiomics recently introduced its infectious disease diagnostic services to the integrative healthcare field at the annual Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

With a single test of any biological sample, Aperiomics seeks to accurately identify all microbes present—including pathogens—whether bacteria, fungus, parasite, or virus. The single test can ensure correct and comprehensive pathogen identification for better patient outcomes, monitor animal populations and environments for potential outbreaks, limit development of antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs,’ and maintain the safety of food-processing and water systems, among other applications.

“Our goal is to completely change the way the world identifies microorganisms, to improve health for humans and animals,” says Crystal Icenhour, PhD, CEO of Aperiomics. “Currently, up to 75% of infections are never diagnosed. Antibiotics are overused partly because of this inability to achieve diagnosis and partly through prophylactic use in food production. This misuse is creating resistant pathogens for which we presently have no effective treatments.”

Icenhour adds, “It’s worth noting that more-effective healthcare will not only produce better patient outcomes, but can also greatly reduce healthcare expenses. We’re driven to help people by enabling our clients to make better, more informed decisions.”

Instead of traditional laboratory testing that requires a suspected target, the Aperiomics system combines genomics and informatics in a novel way, intended to produce faster and more accurate results than culture-based or even other molecular-based diagnostic methods. The system uses unbiased high-throughput next-generation sequencing with a proprietary advanced statistical analysis not only to find a ‘needle in a haystack’ but also to reveal that a pathogenic ‘needle’ is lurking there even before the pathogen has caused symptoms.

Currently, Aperiomics offers two services. Xplore-Patho is a service that allows practitioners to send a biological sample to Aperiomics for analysis to identify all known pathogens in the sample. Xplore-Biome characterizes the microbiome of any given sample.

“The next Aperiomics product will be a service to test for a pathogen’s drug resistance,” says Robb Milne, director of sales and marketing at Aperiomics. “Another future application will be a method, already demonstrated in an academic setting, to discover previously unknown pathogens.”